What Would Addy Do?

In the past couple of months I’ve really been trying to make better financial decisions in every aspect of my life. And every time I’ve wondered what the best thing to do is, I’ve found myself asking What would Addy do in this situation? And you know, when I’ve answered that question honestly, though at times it’s been hard, I’ve actually profited from it.

Here are a couple of examples I can think of off the top of my head:

We recently purchased a used water stove (I’m so anxious to tell you all about it once we get it hooked up and running!) which came with three solar panels. We bought all of this for $500, which Addy called a “stinkin’ good deal”!

We really were solely interested in the water stove, but when the lady told me what she would take for all of it, I couldn’t pass up the deal. I knew that used solar panels sell for over $200 a piece, and like I said, she had three. So now my contemplations were whether I should keep the solar panels or not. They were purely for convenience, in our case.

In the summer time they could heat the water stove for us without having to burn any wood. That would be really nice; chopping wood is hard work.

But then again… we have lots of wood around here, and don’t really need the luxury. And we could really use the money from selling the solar panels.

So, I debated back and forth with myself over what to do. Keep the added convenience? Or pass it up for hard work, but potentially profit from it in return? I talked to Addy about my thoughts. She told me that in all of the years she’s had a water stove, she’s never had solar panels and has never needed any. That helped me to make up my mind.

So, I decided that it would be wiser to try to make some money back on this investment, and forgo the luxury. Boy, am I glad I did! I listed the solar panels for sale and very quickly they were sold… for $650! So, I made my money back plus a $150 profit, and still had the water stove. How great is that?!

And this past week we were given a new (to us) couch. It isn’t exactly my style, nor does it match our decor. But my husband really likes it because it’s much more comfortable than our old one; he’s right about that. So, I’ve decided to keep it and get rid of the old couch.

The old couch is slipcovered. It’s in terrible shape cosmetically, so without the slipcover I would have to give it away for free to get rid of it.

Since the new couch doesn’t match anything, I could keep the slipcover off the old one, and everything would still match.

So, Do I:

A: Keep the slipcover so that the new couch matches, and give the old ugly couch away for free?

B: Let the slipcover stay on the old couch and sell it for a little chunk of money and keep the new couch the way it is even though it doesn’t match.

After contemplating what Addy would probably do, I decided it would be wiser to try to make money on the old couch rather than just give it away. I can live with a couch that doesn’t exactly fit my style in exchange for some extra money.

My point in telling you all of this?? I am learning that it is wiser, in these times especially, to give up some conveniences (like the solar panels) and luxuries (like having a matching couch) in order to be more prudent when it comes to my family’s finances. I am willing to make sacrifices like these in order to help provide more for my family.

I’m encouraging you to try to begin thinking in this way. Forget about how it will look to other people. Forget about what is easier for you to do. If you are in debt or don’t have at least a 6 month emergency fund saved up, it really would be wise of you to begin thinking about what you can live without, a costly thing to give up or sell, in order to earn a little extra money to put towards paying off that debt or stashing in a savings account. You and your family will be better off because of it.

**Update: After selling our old couches, and using the free couch for a while, we were able to save a little money and buy a set that we really liked! I found it on Craigslist, and the set only ended up costing us $200. Not bad! So… be patient with your money, you will always be blessed for it!

I ended up selling the couch and slipcover for more than I bought the couch and slipcover for together. The couch wasn’t in good enough shape without the slipcover for anyone to want it; it was missing the cushion covers, so it really needed the slipcover to be on it 🙂 It worked out well that we were able to make $100 from it!

I saw that one of your goals for this coming year is to learn to sew and you can actually make your own slipcover in the future. It’ll still be an expense to buy enough fabric to make it–but if you really want it–you’d have the satisfaction of making it yourself and picking out the exact fabric you wanted.
Just a thought. I love catching up with you and how you are trying to make a difference for your family. Keep up the (sometimes hard but worth it) good work!

Great deal with the solar panels!! You made a good decision with the couch. I have had a couch with slipcovers and even though they look nice, they were a pain, IMO! I was constantly fixing them…drove me nuts! Oh and since I am new to homesteading, and am addicted to your blog (I must check it twice a day for updates I can incorporate into my life), I decided to start one of my own to keep track of my trials and errors on going to a more simpler, self sufficient life! I am new to blogging so I really have no clue what I am doing, but I will get the hang of it sooner or later and get adventurous with the tags and such! Visit me! lol.

I was going to say, keep the slipcover! Just because if it were me, I might end up buying a new one and that wouldn’t be cost effective at all. But if it looks ok, and its more comfortable, I suppose its something I could live with.

I was pretty confused about the whole water stove because I thought it was a water heater, but I looked them up, and they also help heat houses. How interesting. We use natural gas in my neck of the woods. Probably because its not really in the woods.

As you write this, there are ads for all kinds of slipcovers for sale in the margins. What you write is very interesting, I think I would have kept the slipcover, sometimes when you don’t have much to look at, it’s nice if it matches. I’m curious where you live? I live on Cape Cod. I’m starting my first garden this year too, mine will be tiny compared to yours. My boys would be sad if the entire backyard became a garden!

"Hi! I'm Kendra. I'm a wife, mother, and homesteader. I love everything that has to do with simple living. I'm a canning instructor, an avid gardener, and a constant learner of old-fashioned skills. Here is where I share it all. Welcome to the adventure!"